Visitors walks through a portion of William Goodrich Jones State Forest near FM 1488 Tuesday, March 28, 2017, in Conroe. State senator Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, is drawing criticism for his SB 1964, a ... more

As opposition mounts against Conroe lawmaker Brandon Creighton's bill that would allow building construction on 10 percent of Jones State Forest, the state senator is promising to protect the remaining 90 percent of the park located off of FM 1488 and Texas 242 in Montgomery County.

But that's still is not sufficient enough for the thousands of individuals who signed a petition in opposition to destroying any part of the recreational park.

Creighton has said the bill is intended to allow a small portion of Jones State Park to be used for educational purposes, which could enable Texas A&M University System, which owns and operates the preserve, to build a campus on a section of the pristine preserve.

Under his Senate Bill 1964 the Republican senator is proposing amending the state Education Code to allow building in a southern section of the 1,722-acre park, a proposal that has sparked a firestorm of protest from community members opposed to any development in the state forest.

Acknowledging the uproar, Creighton sent out a letter to constituents saying the bill came at the request of the university system, which wants to use 5-10 percent of the park, or up to 170 acres, for "educational purposes."

Creighton followed the letter with a statement saying he would be dropping the word "commercial" from the bill and would be adding new terminology that would provide more environmental protections for the forest.

"I am considering adding a more comprehensive conservation easement to protect the entire remaining 90% of the forest from ever being used for anything other than its current use," he stated. "That doesn't exist now."

The A&M University system also released a statement acknowledging that it had asked Creighton to file the bill and saying it is seeking to use a portion of the park for a "setting" to be used for academic purposes.

"Typically, comparable facilities include classrooms, conference space, collaborative workspaces, incubators, research laboratories and offices, as well as independently operated food vendors, coffee shops and other services for students, faculty and visitors," the university system said in the statement.

But Creighton's assurances and the university's apparent attempt to shore up support for the bill and its sponsor appears to be doing little to assuage a vocal and expanding legion of opponents of the bill who worry the university system really wants to build another campus in the park. The group SaveJonesStateForest, one of the groups that has sprouted up trying to block the bill, notes the 178 acres the university system wants to develop would dwarf nearby Lone Star College-Montgomery's entire campus and is about the same size of many small- to medium-size colleges in the state.

"We are very concerned of the building of A&M campus," Amy Cauffman-Walton, who lives a short walk from Jones State Park and is an organizer with the SaveJonesStateForest, told The Courier.

So is the bill really the beginning of a broader plan to build a campus in the park?

"No, it's not," responded Laylan Copelin, vice chancellor of marketing and communications for the university system.

"We're not going to build some huge campus or something," he said. "That's not the plan."

Copelin described the bill as just "starting the conversation," before any possible development work in the preserve. And, he points out, any development could only come after a lengthy process that would include public hearings and approval from the university Board of Regents.

Still, Cauffman-Walton and other opponents of the bill worry about a host of potential problems in opening up the preserve to development, including heavy traffic on nearby roads. "It's like dropping Magic Kingdom in our neighborhood," she said, while also acknowledging that she and her husband are A&M graduates.

Opponents also are concerned about increased flooding if trees are cut down for development, as well as threats to the habitat of the red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered bird that makes its home in the park's pine trees. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the woodpecker, which was listed as endangered in 1970, will take decades to rebound before it's considered to have a secure status in the wild.

Likewise, a spokesman with the Lonestar Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Texas branch of the nationwide Sierra Club, said the chapter remains opposed to the bill and is not impressed by promises that development in the preserve would be limited to educational purposes, while taking up as much as 10 percent of the park.

"Ten percent is 170 acres," said Brandt Mannchen, a forest manager issues chairman for the club. "That's a lot of learning center."

Meanwhile, a change.org petition urging Creighton to withdraw the bill continues gaining momentum. By late Friday, nearly 7,000 people had put their electronic signature on the petition since it was first posted last a week ago.

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